Picnic PostNL has a clear goal for the Tour de France and selects an offensive eight-man squad for it

“We head to France with great memories of last year’s Tour,” said Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston on the team website. “The team we’re bringing has shown in recent weeks that they ride well together and have achieved strong results, so we start this race with confidence.”

The team isn’t shy about what it wants to achieve. “Our main goal is to go for stage wins. Oscar Onley recently showed he’s in top form at the Tour of Switzerland with multiple podium finishes, and he is one of our key riders for the hillier and mountain stages,” Winston revealed as the first name.

Picnic PostNL has also selected Warren Barguil and Frank van den Broek. “For the more rolling stages, they are two strong assets, both coming out of Switzerland with good legs.” Van den Broek nearly won the opening stage of last year’s Tour but left the victory to teammate Romain Bardet, who has since retired.

For the stages expected to end in a sprint, the Dutch team has two cards to play. “In the flat finishes, we have Tobias Lund Andresen and Pavel Bittner as sprinters who, supported by this team, can certainly take their chances on different types of finishes.” For both the 22-year-old Dane and the equally young Czech, this will be their Tour debut. Notably, Andresen has already won this year, taking a victory in January at the Surf Coast Classic.

Tim Naberman, Sean Flynn, and Niklas Märkl complete Picnic PostNL’s Tour selection. “All in all, we will look day by day at where the opportunities lie,” said Winston. “If we continue working together as we are now, fully committing to each other and our goals, I’m convinced we can achieve good results and cross the finish line in Paris with our heads held high.”

Oscar Onley